259
259 was Adam Clark's entry for Series 6 of Robot Wars. It featured a potent vertical flywheel inspired by US series competitor Cyclone, but did not achieve great success, reaching the second round in Series 6 and the UK vs Germany Special broadcast at the end of the series. However, it won the Best Design award for Series 6. Similar to how Wowot was named after his young son's pronunciation of "robot", 259 was named because Clark's son would say "2...5...9" instead of "3...2...1" during the beginning countdown. Design 259 was a four-wheel drive, low rectangular-shaped robot with back and side skirts and armed with a powerful vertical flywheel modeled on that of Cyclone's weapon. The flywheel, driven by an 89bhp electric motor, had crescent-shaped holes cut through it to save weight, spun upwards at up to 130mph, and was capable of delivering immense damage to other robots. Like Cyclone, 259's disc was also powerful enough to flip other robots over (as vividly demonstrated against Infernal Contraption and Wild Thing), and out of the arena, although it did not achieve the latter despite coming close. However, 259 had exposed wheels which were easily damaged by spinning weapons, and suffered from drive belts which could easily be dislodged or damaged, disabling its wheels and weapon at various points when they came loose from the robot. It was also slow at 9mph, and did not have a self-righting mechanism. Qualification In its Series 6 qualifier, 259 disabled all three of its opponents, Chip, Colossus and former Semi-Finalist Splinter in under 30 seconds. Chip's defeat was largely down to it impaling itself on the arena wall, after which 259 immobilised it. 259 easily qualified for Series 6, and Colossus was also given a place. Robot History Series 6 In its appearance in Series 6, 259 first fought newcomers Infernal Contraption and Infinity and veteran Aggrobot 3 in its opening melee. It charged straight into Infernal Contraption and Aggrobot 3, deflecting both robots before attacking Infinity, buckling one of its pincers and flipping it onto its side. 259 backed away, getting underneath Infernal Contraption and breaking its back panel loose before chasing Infinity. Infinity pressed the pit release button before driving itself in, and 259 concentrated on attacking Infernal Contraption, damaging its shredded tyres and almost flipping it on top of the pit release button. Infernal Contraption escaped and spun around, before being tossed over Aggrobot 3 by 259's flywheel, and nearly flying over the wall as it was sent into Sir Killalot's CPZ. One more attack from 259 ripped more panels and internals loose from Infernal Contraption, as the latter spun itself onto the edge of the pit, getting stuck on the edge and counted out by Refbot. After a convincing performance, 259 went through to the second round along with Aggrobot 3. Here, 259 was placed up against the ninth seed Wild Thing 2. It started the more potent machine, using its flywheel to fling Wild Thing 2 over several times around the arena, causing damage to its armour and attempting to flip it out, before Wild Thing 2 escaped and began pushing it around from the side. 259 slammed head on into Wild Thing 2 again, launching it into the air, but at the same time causing the drive belt for its flywheel to slip off and therefore disabling its weapon. 259 pressed the pit release button, before it and Wild Thing 2 continued to shove each other around the arena and towards the Flame Pit and pit for most of the battle thereafter. Towards the end, 259 suddenly stopped moving close to the floor spinner, with Wild Thing 2 riding up on its side and slamming into it one last time as the battle drew to a close. Although 259 lost mobility with nine seconds remaining, well under the 30 seconds required for it to be deemed immobilised, the battle went to the judges, who voted Wild Thing 2 through. This decision was met with disappointment by many, including the audience, with Philippa Forrester even speaking to Professor Noel Sharkey to discuss the decision. While Sharkey expressed his sympathy for 259 and considered it the superior performer, the decision still stood, and 259 was eliminated from the competition. Despite its early defeat in the main series, 259 won the Best Design award at the end of Series 6. 259 also competed in the UK vs Germany Special, representing the UK, which was broadcast at the end of the Sixth Wars and as part of German Robot Wars. In the first round, 259 fought fellow UK representatives Judge Shred 2½. Despite nearly being flipped over, its flywheel bent Judge Shred 2½'s flipper upon landing, before 259 used it to buffet its opponent into a CPZ, flick it onto its side and tear off most of its side panels. This attack left Judge Shred 2½ immobilised on one side as Growler nudged it away, before 259 hit it a few more times, launching it into the air and nearly tipping it over. Judge Shred 2½ got wedged on 259's flywheel, with Refbot coming in to separate both robots. Neither appeared to show any signs of mobility, even as Growler pushed 259 into the pit release bumper, but Judge Shred 2½ was counted out, flung on the Floor Flipper and pitted by Growler. Although 259 was also counted out and pushed into the pit as well at the end of the fight, it still progressed through to the next round. Here, 259 fought another UK representative, Fluffy, for a place in the final alongside the best-performing German representative. Both robots dodged each other initially until Fluffy attacked 259's front end, damaging one of its exposed wheels and dislodging its right-hand drive belt. Another attack ripped the left-hand belt and one of the wheels off 259's chassis, before Fluffy's blade made contact with 259's flywheel, hurling 259 onto its side. With no way to self-right, 259 was counted out by Refbot, before having its chassis pounded by Mr. Psycho's hammer, and sliced by Dead Metal, who pushed it into the pit. This eliminated 259 from the UK vs Germany Special. Results |} Wins/Losses *Wins: 2 *Losses: 2 Series Record 259 Pits.jpg|259 in the pits 259NoTop.png|259 in the pits without its top 259 Hconcept.jpg|Initial model of 259's Series 7 concept 259h chassis.jpg|259-Horizontal being created Outside Robot Wars 259 was due to be rebuilt and renamed 259-Horizontal, or '259-H', for Series 7, with its disc mounted horizontally instead of vertically. However, it was not finished in time for Series 7, and thus failed to appear there. In August 2019, Adam Clark built a brand-new beetleweight robot under the name 259. The robot bears no resemblance to its heavyweight or middleweight counterparts, being a four-wheel driven pushing robot, but competed at UK beetleweight events. The disc used by 259 in Series 6 also appeared at Roboberd 2019, alongside Vector of Armageddon. Trivia *Despite being Adam Clark's fifth entry for Robot Wars (including his two robots that failed to qualify), 259 was the first one to win a battle. **Ultimately, 259 was the only heavyweight robot entered by Adam Clark to win a battle. *A middleweight version of 259, bearing the same name, was built for and competed in the Middleweight Championship of Robot Wars Extreme: Series 2, reaching the Final before being defeated by Typhoon. **A featherweight version, also known as 259, was conceptualised but never completedhttp://web.archive.org/web/20061205035439/http://dmachine.tv/. Honours References External Links *Adam Clark's website (archived) Category:UK Series competitors Category:Best Design winners Category:Robots from Greater London Category:UK Representatives Category:Robots with Vertical Flywheels Category:International event only competitors in the German Series Category:Robots to appear in Battle Cards Pack 4 Category:Robots with an equal amount of Wins and Losses Category:Robots that wore side skirts Category:Robots which debuted in Series 6